I started the Treelight Shawl because I love the look of brioche and was excited to work on a shawl that incorporated one-color, two-color, and honeycomb brioche in one. I enjoyed knitting this shawl, but this was the first project where I ended it early because of ‘complications’. Keep reading to see more on my Treelight Shawl Knitting Experience:
After I knit my first shawl (the Fantastitch by Stephen West), I was on the hunt for my next big shawl project. I knit the Starflake Shawl next and really enjoyed it, but I wanted something a little more challenging. I found the Treelight Shawl by Susanne Sommer and loved the brioche and honeycomb brioche together. I thought this shawl would be the perfect mix of fun and a challenge.
The Treelight Shawl is unique because it switches between brioche and honeycomb brioche with transition stripes of two-color brioche. I’ve knit two-color brioche and honeycomb brioche before, but I was new to one-color brioche and excited to learn.
YARN
I wanted to choose yarn colors that were similar type to the designer. Her shawl used a solid/semi-solid with two speckled/variegated yarns. I chose my yarn from La Bien Aimee and bought Rust, Tidal Sands, and Peanut Butter & Jelly.
The Peanut Butter & Jelly is my favorite colorway from La Bien Aimee. I used it all over in my Favo Sweater, as part of the fade in my Hiberknitting Cowl, and in my Fantastitch. The blend of pink, purples, and blues mixed with a tiny hint of the rusty orange color make me so happy. Since the PB&J color has those speckles of Rust, I chose Tidal Sands which has those same rusty pops, and a skein of Rust to tie it all together.
ONE-COLOR BRIOCHE
The pattern starts out with one-color brioche over just a few stitches and grows with brkyobrk increases. I first learned brioche with my Marled Magic Sweater; the sweater actually calls for one-color brioche, but I thought two-color brioche would be so cool instead. Since I had already learned two-color brioche, one-color was easy. I love it when I can work a knitting pattern without having to watch a YouTube tutorial online — it feels like my knitting skills have improved a lot.
TWO-COLOR BRIOCHE
The pattern introduces the next color with two-color brioche. I like how this softens the transition, and introduces a new technique. I was surprised how seamlessly I could switch between one and two-color brioche; no set-up rows needed.
I was excited to move to this next section so quickly; I really like when a pattern keeps things interesting. Unfortunately for me, the next section came so quickly because I misunderstood the pattern — more on that later :/
HONEYCOMB BRIOCHE
After the two-color brioche transition, you drop that first color and start the honeycomb brioche. Again, I was so impressed with how easy it was to swap between these techniques without and set-up rows. I love honeycomb brioche so much — that was part of the reason I picked this shawl in the first place. I learned about honeycomb brioche from my Favo Sweater and loved it so much I modified my Penguono to include it on the sleeves.
I recently knit the Honey Clutch and learned a new way to knit the honeycomb brioche stitch (from the swatch pattern instructions). I’m glad I learned that new technique because it’s the same technique that the Treelight Shawl uses. I found the Honey Clutch swatch version to be a little easier for me to understand, so I was glad I was already familiar with that technique before I started the Treelight Shawl.
TREELIGHT SHAWL REPEATS
Those three sections are repeated throughout the shawl to create the blocky striped pattern. I was really enjoying working on the different kinds of brioche and swapping yarns. I personally get a little bored when there are so many repeats; I just want to move on to a new technique or the next color. As this shawl grew and I got past the halfway point, I started getting concerned that my shawl was the wrong gauge.
PATTERN MISUNDERSTANDING
My shawl was looking pretty short/small, but I was over halfway through the pattern. My stitch counts were right, so I thought my gauge must have been off. I rarely swatch for gauge and didn’t think I needed to for a shawl (vs a garment like a sweater).
I looked through other FO pictures on Ravelry and I noticed that the very first section of one-color brioche was a lot longer than mine was. I read back through the pattern, and it took me a while to realize what I had done wrong. Here’s what I did, and what it should have been:
The pattern has a section, for example, like:
Row 1 (RS): XXX
Row 1 (WS): XXX
Row 2 (RS): XXX
Row 2 (WS): XXX
Repeat R2 another two times.
Repeat from Row 1 another 6 times.
I knit Row 1 (RS and WS), then Row 2 (RS and WS). Then I went back and knit Row 2 twice more. Then, I repeated Rows 1 – 2 six more times.
Instead, I should have knit (Rows 1-2 AND the Row 2 repeats) for six times.
I didn’t realize that the Row 2 repeat instructions should have been included, but the pattern did say “Repeat FROM…” so that was completely my misunderstanding.
I did see at least two other projects on Ravelry that appear to have made this same error, so I hope this post can help if you’re one of the few who found this a little confusing.
Once I realized my mistake I was pretty bummed out. There are a few other locations in the pattern that say to “Repeat FROM…” so my entire shawl was going to be way shorter. I didn’t want to start over; I’d knit so much without any technical errors. It didn’t seem worth it to me to rip out all my work at that point… :/ but I just wasn’t happy with how it was going.
BORDER / ENDING EARLY
After letting this project hibernate for a while, I decided to try to knit until the end of the pattern and just have a mini-shawl. But it just wasn’t meant to be for me — I knit a few rows of two-color brioche before I realized I had knit on the the wrong sides. I was frustrated and over this project.
I picked up the edge stitches, added an I-cord border and called it a day.
OVERALL THOUGHTS
This project didn’t work out how I planned, but I did enjoy knitting the brioche and transitioning between the different types/colors. Unfortunately, I let my misunderstanding of the pattern and my frustration get to me. I will attempt to work this pattern another time and make sure to do the correct repeats.
I think the Treelight Shawl is a great pattern to practice brioche. I would say it’s an ‘adventurous brioche beginner’-friendly project because it’s just straight columns of brioche. Aside from the occasional brkyobrk increase, there are no other increase/decreases. Even though I misunderstood the repeats, the pattern is well-organized and well-written.
